About the Same

 I came to the conclusion today that recovering from some types of retooling is like a very bad arthritis flare up.  The thing that they all have in common is erratic sleep, energy and the weird time of day that my body craves caffeine.  Yes it is 10:15 pm and I am having my first chai of the day.  The odd thing about this is once the caffeine hits my system I will be sound asleep within 30 minutes. 

I am one of those weird people who can fall asleep after caffeine and sleep for hours.   I also find caffeine very calming.  Three quarters of the way through the cup I can feel the tension leaving my body.  The lack of caffeine headache is leaving too.  

Also did I mention how bored I am being a partial couch potato.  So looking forward to next year.  I am just counting the days.  I know it is going to be better.  We are also staying home for New Years Eve and having a party for 2.   Please join us in keeping the party small and in your bubble.  

Cravings

 Tonight was just a top off to a bad body day.  I was craving ice cream and chocolate pudding. Both of which are big no no’s on my post retooling diet. I am on a very low fat diet. It’s great for the scale, I have dropped  8 pounds down since the retooling and 13 since I got sick. This is very bad for my bad inclinations of eat yummy high fat food occasionally. I landed up settling for chai with soy nog and a few low fat cookies.  

Tomorrow I am going to be ordering more low fat vanilla soy milk. 

On the bright side I plyed 1 small skein of yarn on my favorite Golding Drop Spindle.  I also got 2 more ready for plying.  I returned 2 drop spindles to their homes. I also played with a very lightweight drop spindle to start spinning the 1st shearing of some baby alpaca, talk about a heavenly spin.  

Well it’s getting late and sleep is necessary for healing.  

To get your own Golding Drop Spindle go to www.goldingfibertools.com.  I have several and you can never go wrong with buy a Golding spindle. They make great gifts too. 

Last Retooling of 2020

 I had what is hopefully my last retooling of 2020 eleven days ago.  The road to recovery is slow on this one. I can honestly say that I can not get through the day without a nap. I am only walking about 2 1/2 miles a day, but I am not worried about my step count right now.  I also found the most amazing thing with this retooling, with in days my arthritis pain levels dropped to a pain level that I have not seen since my 30’s.  So I am hoping for an onward and upward 2021. 

I will start 2021 with selfish knitting.  My current plan is to finish every work in progress without frogging for a smaller size. This means that if between the time I started the project and the time I finished it the finished object is to big I will just sell it on my Facebook page Handmade by Sheri. Then I will go through a backlog of projects that I have wanted to do for a long time and are just waiting for the time.  Well now is going to be the time.  I have sweaters, gloves and a whole lot more. 

With the COVID19 vaccines I am really hoping that I can knit in person with my friends soon.  I can’t wait to knit at Grandmas Spinning Wheel here in Tucson again.  I can truly say that I am more optimistic than I have been in a long time.  

I think it is breakfast time and I hear my oatmeal calling.  

Sheri’s Big Adventure

I had a wonderful adventure today  First I headed to the Post Office to drop a letter off  Then I headed south on Oracle to the Flowing Well School District to drop off things for the clothing bank.

 I landed up weaving 5 scarfs for the Flowing Wells School District Clothing Bank District.  Since I did not see a chance in he double toothpicks of selling the inventory of scarf’s I had selling at the art gallery (they were returned do to lack of business), I took those and added them to the donation.  Plus a few pairs of socks.  A few more presents or warm clothing for the kids. That is my holiday present to myself. 

After the clothing bank drop off I went to see the construction on the I-10.  Not much work going on.  I think I wanted to just drive my car on the freeway.  My car has almost 1,700 miles on it.  Yes, it sucked to replace my car right before COVID19.  It was a necessary step as I did not need a car that was wheelchair accessible. Don’t get me wrong the van was perfect when I needed it.  So yes it was time to replace it.  John and I were thinking other than not living in California, someone might confuse me with the little old lady from Pasadena with as much as I drive lately.  

Then there was the grocery delivery. That usually is the highlight of our week.  That was so much activity that a 2 hour nap was necessary. After all that I was too tired to do much even spinning.

Stress Cleaning

 I spent a couple of hours stress cleaning and made a lot of progress.  I was starting to relax when we figured out the reason the ice maker was not working was the the refrigerator had died.  After throwing out a lot of partly defrosted or totally defrosted food I was again stressed out but too tired to clean.  If it can’t be fixed we might have to actually go into a store to get a new one.  

Keeping Busy

 Today I kept busy.  As of 7 p.m. I walked 12,500 steps or 5.2 miles.  I also attacked a few of the shelves in the sewing room.  I did not take a before pictures but the messy top shelf of the rack is what it looked like.  The picture is what some of the work today. A lot of skeins and kits were organized.  I also work on the closet organizing   I also filled 1 1/2 boxes with yarn, fiber and weaving supplies.  I am hoping that the friend who took the box last week will take these also.  

I spent part of the afternoon spinning.  First some pencil roving. Then some alpaca with silk.  I can say that I did keep myself to busy to think.  I am exhausted an so I am hoping to sleep tonight.  Then more tomorrow.  

Grief and Loss

 This week is going to be hard.  It’s been a year and 1 day since we lost Eric.  Today is the one year anniversary of his funeral.  In five days it would have been his 31st birthday.  Although we tended to celebrate Eric’s birthday all month long and when ever we went somewhere special.  I am not sure how the week will go, but my goal is to try to stay in the now and not eat my way through my grief.  I also plan on a lot of walking. So far so good on the eating and walking front.  

Since stress makes my arthritis worse and I still have 6 weeks before I can try knitting again.  I know that I can spin and weave but I might not have any creative mojo this week. I just might go on a cleaning and de stashing spree.  So a few people might just get some calls to pick up some crafting supplies.  I am sure that you won’t mind. I just don’t know about you’re families will like it  

If you are so inclined to remember Eric a donation in his memory would be most appreciated.  The first that I would like to suggest is www.ML4.org as they are continuing to do research on this disease that turned my family upside down.  ML4 was Eric’s primary diagnosis. The second  is your local community food bank, like all kids with ML4 Eric loved to eat.  Eric also loved making donation runs around Thanksgiving every year.  We would fill up the van with a donation that Eric would hand off while I slipped in a check.  He was delighted when the volunteers remembered his name and that he like to hand them the food. 

I will miss his smile this week and his delight in having the birthday guy sing happy birthday. Eric might be gone physically, but he is not forgotten. I love him to the moon and back.